Jain Legend Vol 1

SR No.: 007594
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 367
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 2 MB

Page 276

Austerities of Lord Mah v ra
cr mgas tra and Kalpas tra state that after initiation Lord Mah v ra retained nothing with him barring the devad ya. For around 13 years that cloth remained on his shoulder, and after it fell off and the Lord remained totally naked. During his mendicancy period, he would stay at either a poor person's hut or a rest house for travelers, etc. He always kept his hands hanging on the sides. He would not bend his arms even in extreme winter months. When all others would try to protect themselves in winter, Lord Mah v ra would stand naked. Apart from winter, summer he had to bear with many kinds of harsh feelings on the skin through bites of mosquitoes, etc. The place fo stay was also filled with different kinds of difficulties and bites of poisonous creatures like scorpions, snakes, crows, hawks were also borne by him. Sometimes wicked people used to beat him up or abuse him, women and children would tease him or make fun, but in the midst of all those difficulties, and calamities, the Lord used to remain meditative with equanimity in a pure and peaceful manner and would not bring to mind any sense of hurt /pain.
If there was reason to leave a place he would do so quietly. The Lord never slept during his mendicancy period; he remained in deep meditation in k yotsarga posture. While wandering he would not look ahead or behind nor on his sides, and would not even speak to anyone. Being in equanimity in all circumstances, he would seek alms from different homes and would not differentiate between a palace, a hut, or a rich or poor person. Whatever food he received, be it fresh or stale, etc, he would accept without bias, but he would not partake of faulty food. Mah v ra's dispassionate attitude towards his body was extraordinary. He was not only apathetic to cold and heat but to sickness also. He would not even seek to brush off anything from the body nor would he scratch. Rising above passion towards the body while being in the body, he went beyond the corporeal existence. He did not even wink at the most difficult bodily pain nor did not attempt to cure it by any means. Actually, it is hard to find an example anywhere else of this kind of incomparable forbearance in austerity and equanimity in every situation.
The First year of spiritual-exertion
After leaving Koll ga, the Lord reached the Mor ka province. The chief of the hermitage there was a friend of king Siddh rtha. He welcomed
276